For several decades now, scientists from around the world have been pursuing a ridiculously ambitious goal: They hope to develop a nuclear fusion
reactor that would generate energy in the same manner as the sun and other stars, but down here on Earth.

Incorporated into terrestrial power plants, this "star in a jar" technology would essentially provide Earth with limitless clean energy, forever. And
according to new reports out of Europe this week, we just took another big step toward making it happen.

In a study published in the latest edition of the journal Nature Communications, researchers confirmed that Germany's Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion
energy device is on track and working as planned. The space-age system, known as a stellerator, generated its first batch of hydrogen plasma when it
was first fired up earlier this year. The new tests basically give scientists the green light to proceed to the next stage of the process.

It works like this: Unlike a traditional fission reactor, which splits atoms of heavy elements to generate energy, a fusion reactor works by fusing
the nuclei of lighter atoms into heavier atoms. The process releases massive amounts of energy and produces no radioactive waste. The "fuel" used in a
fusion reactor is simple hydrogen, which can be extracted from water.

I started to post this a few days ago but decided (for me anyway) all I have heard are about how close, how if just another few billion and 20 more
years the dream can be realized. When the first plant is built for commercial use then I will believe it. Otherwise S&F for the effort.

The only impediment, as always, is human nature and the will to power. Whichever nation develops this (or renders it cost effective first) could be
seen as an existential threat to all others if they don't share this technology. If it's developed on a shared, international basis, will the benefits
also be shared with developing and third world countries? And needless to say, with such immense energy also comes the potential for weaponization.

As ever, the result depends on which side of our natures win out. I always hope for the best, though. And if fully developed and deployed - if we
prove worthy of it - it really could radically alter our planet's future for the better.

You're right about that, it would be a threat depending on what Nation had hold of this kind of technology. The Men in power so far, haven't proved
worthy to be in the place they're at.

We can only wait, once more, to see what good the World brings. I hope things change soon, because we're all tired and beaten by the way things have
turned completely left field in the past few years, way out of the ball park to say the very least.

Not much will happen actually. The plasma in those reactors has a very low density, so the amount of "fuel" is very small, like a few
grams.

Those are small experimental sized reactors. They always sell it that way. The first fission reactors were promised to be clean and lo polluting, too.
The ones that blew in Fukushima had hundreds of tons of fissionable material in their cores and fuel pools...

By the time they pronounce production model fusion reactors they will be large too. I donna fancy having small suns kept in bottles dotting the
horizon.

originally posted by: yuppa
this is old news. One of our nations weapons designers have a truck sized fusion reactor in the works. they just have to fin d a way to MAKE MONEY off
of it.

That one's pretty straightforward.

Once you've got the thing to fuse with D-T, you're a monstrous step ahead. But then you have to deal with engineering the thing for energy production
and holding together long enough to be useful commercially, which is another bag of snakes.

Unless you can do p-B11 fusion, in which case a lot of other issues deal with themselves. But that one's hugely more difficult.

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